house speaker john boehner says republicans want to cooperate but not by raising taxes. >> here we go again. president obama addressed the crisis rather and other challenges he faces in his first post-victory news conference. abc's karen travers is joining us from washington with more. hi, karen. >> reporter: good morning, rob. good morning, paula. white house officials say they were expecting the president to get tough questions and yesterday he got them on a wide range of issues. in his first press conference in eight months, president obama said the american people knew what they were getting when they re-elected him. and his takeaway from last week's results -- >> i've got a mandate to help middle-class families. >> reporter: the fiscal cliff and mandatory spending cuts and tax increases is looming at the end of the year. >> i want a big deal. i want a comprehensive deal. >> reporter: the president reiterated that he's not backing down from the campaign pledge. to raise taxes on the wealthiest americans. >> a modest tax increase on the wealthy is not going to break their backs. th